cross-platform (at least the client) if possible, with easy deployment

python interface would be nice

job dependencies - at least before/after-like keywords

Background: I'm trying to make a better data processing system for our small tokamak reactor and as we implement more sophisticated analysis SW, the CPU and memory cost rises. I need a core cluster with a few nodes for the basic analysis, but then from time to time a student comes with some special hardware that can be controlled through e.g. his notebook and there's no time to install it on the main servers, so giving him an ssh account+key for uploading the data is usually the simplest way.

I've already done some research, but IPython seems too complex and doesn't have ssh integration (only ssh tunnels) and GNU parallel doesn't have dependencies. I feel like I'm going to have to write most of the integration on my own, but a few helpful libraries could speed it up.

Thanks BK, I remember seeing the name but AFAIK it's more of an abstract term describing a poor-man's cluster, almost like a specification.
The specification (if there even is something like that) appears to be very vague and I cannot find any simple deployment docs.
Could you recommend any relevant and up-to-date docs on how to make a Beowulf cluster?
So far I've found OSCAR and openMosix(looks dead) for management, could you recommend any other?

The trouble is that it behaves like one big supercomputer, I need a bit more granularity due to specific hardware dependencies, but I could use at least some of the technologies. Also, I may need to hot-add a computer and need to deploy it quickly, without installing any special SW if possible.

EDIT: Thinking about it, our present setup could be described as a Beowulf cluster, but sorta patched up, I'm looking for something more automated for management.
EDIT2: any experience with TORQUE?

Not sure about capabilities, but I've read about Rocks Cluster Distribution._________________Here's another unfortunate pack of mutants who ought to be penciled in for a sudden visit from the angel of death.
-- Carlin

thank you pigeon768, SLURM looks also interesting as an alternative.
However, it requires each node to have slurmd running as root (pbs_mom in torque does too, unfortunately), which is a bit too demanding in our case.
I need to be able to give a user a few packages and scripts that he can quickly deploy on his computer/server, where he may not have root.
Torque got close with their neat package distribution system, but the root privileges requirement is a show stopper...